What Is it?
The 3D Print Finisher is an acetone vapor chamber that will eliminate the layer lines on any ABS plastic 3D printed object, even if it is printed at a low resolution. The acetone vapor is created using a heated pan and a small amount of acetone. The leak proof steel frame allows the vapor to remain inside of the chamber and finish your 3D printed object in minutes or less. The front of the vapor chamber has a glass window so you can watch your 3D printed part become transformed.

How to Operate
The 3D Print Finisher is very simple to use. All you have to do is squirt a small amount of acetone into the heating pan, place the object onto the removable bed, turn it on,replace the lid and watch your part become smooth! It takes an average of 3 minutes to finish 3D printed objects. It is important to monitor your object while it is in the chamber so that you can remove the object as soon as it is finished.

The Story
Printing an object at a high resolution can take hours, who has time for that? I wanted to come up with a way to print an object at a low resolution, which is much faster, and have it still look awesome. I then discovered the use of acetone to make a 3D printed object appear as if it has been injection molded no matter what resolution it is printed at. I came across many blogs that instructed people to place their object into a pot of acetone and heat it using a stove top or printer bed. I found out that: 1) placing a plastic object directly into acetone can quickly melt through the plastic, and 2) heating acetone vapors on a printer bed can seriously damage a 3D printer. I decided that there must be a more efficient and safer way of doing this, so I built the 3D Print Finisher.

Manufacturing

As soon as I meet my funding goal I will begin manufacturing the 3D Print Finisher immediately. The steel used for the frame will be purchased through a company in the Chicago area. I will assemble the entire 3D Finisher myself, using solvent resistant sealant to create a leak proof frame. Each 3D Finisher will be tested after it is assembled to make sure that each one works efficiently.
*I am still constantly working on improving the 3D Print Finisher. With the help of everyone who funds this project I will be able to keep improving it. I would love to hear feedback from anyone regarding how this project can be improved.
*A possible shop vac hose adapter to act as a fume extractor is a possible Free Upgrade. We are still experimenting. I will post a video if it seems to be working.

Jun 26, 2013

Looks like all the big corporate players want the piece of the growing tasty 3d printing pie.

From the release:

MakerBot, the leader in desktop 3D printing, is excited to announce its support for Windows 8.1. At today’s Build conference, Microsoft demonstrated Windows 8.1 with builtin support for 3D printing. MakerBot has developed a 3D printing driver that uses the new 3D print pipeline in Windows 8.1. With Windows 8.1, customers will experience plug-n-play and seamless end-toend printing from a wide variety of applications directly to the MakerBot.

Building on this news, MakerBot also announced a reseller agreement between MakerBot and Microsoft to offer the popular MakerBot® Replicator® 2 Desktop 3D Printer in select Microsoft retail stores and online at www.microsoftstore.com. The MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer will come with MakerBot’s MakerCare service. MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printers are currently available at www.microsoftstore.com and in select Microsoft stores along with live demonstrations of the technology. Recently, visitors to the Microsoft store at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto have been learning about MakerBot and 3D Printing through an experience and demonstration that will be expanded to the Westfield San Francisco Centre Microsoft store as of today. “Our goal to is to make the experience of 3D printing as easy as creating and printing a document using Microsoft Word,” said Shanen Boettcher, General Manager, Startup Business Group, Microsoft. “We’re thrilled incredible companies like MakerBot are implementing Windows 8.1 support to make 3D printing a reality for the masses, and we look forward to being inspired by what people create when these amazing new software and hardware experiences come together.” “MakerBot is about creating the MakerBot 3D Ecosystem that makes 3D designing and printing more accessible.

We want to empower more people to create and make things, and working with Microsoft helps our mission, “said Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot. “Giving people the tools to innovate and invent just by hitting ‘print’ and sending it to your MakerBot Replicator 2 is an exciting part of fueling the Next Industrial Revolution. I am excited about the opportunities this combination will bring to our current and future customers.”The MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer is one of the most successful, affordable and accessible desktop 3D printers on the market and is helping to lead the Next Industrial Revolution. The MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer is MakerBot’s fourth generation 3D printer and one of the easiest and fastest tools for making professional-quality models and prototypes. The MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer features a 100-micron layer resolution, and offers a 410 cubic inch build volume (11.2” L x 6.0” W x 6.1” H), setting a new standard in desktop 3D printing. The MakerBot 3D Ecosystem drives the accessibility and rapid adoption of its desktop 3D printers. It includes Thingiverse.com, the largest collection of downloadable digital designs for making physical objects, and which is empowered by a growing community of makers and creators. It also includes MakerWare software, MakerCare service, MakerBot Filament, the MakerBot Retail Store, the MakerBot 3D Photo Booth, and strategic partnerships including Autodesk, Adafruit, Nokia, OUYA, MoMA and Amazon. MakerBot recently announced it will further extend its 3D Ecosystem with the MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner.

Jun 24, 2013

When Brian Kordesal contacted me over facebook in April to present his idea, I was not even sure it was 3D printing at first, but I was quickly convinced. Idea is ingenious and simple. Arcology Now buildings are already being constructed and used as opposed to 3D building technologies which are just "around corner". It is also human assisted 3D printing technology, where human operator is needed to assemble finalised components.
Since it is based on geodesic principles, it could be very scalable and produce some amazing structures.

From Arcology website:

Our first product is our Universal Constructor. It's a house printer. We design structures as simple surfaces in any 3D editor (Blender3D, Maya, 3DS Max....). Then our software compiles a structure to match the 3D surface our designer created.The resulting structure is cut out using a CNC plasma tube cutter and a press to flatten the ends of the tubes. The software writes detailed instructions on how to bolt the whole structure together. A team of builders can frame a two story house in a day.After the frame is up we shrink wrap it with industrial shrink wrap. We then run all the utilities on the outside of the shrinkwrap. We spray on closed cell polyurethane foam. This is a rigid insulating foam layer about six inches thick. We then apply stucco to the exterior shell. This seals it from the elements. Instant house in any shape!The software already fits standard sized windows and door openings... it will actually make any sized/shaped opening you want. Our goal is to have it also designing all the interior walls and flooring soon. Imagine a bamboo plywood floor with a laser etch mural that covers your entire floor, then encased in clear epoxy.That's our style. We use low cost materials, advanced software and robotics to make amazing, livable works of art... at affordable prices! It's Moore's law meets construction costs.

We discuss technical challenges of creation of 3D printable models and what Shapeways team is doing to help developers and regular users to create unique and customizable 3D pieces. In particular we will pay attention to use of AbBab3D – open source software for 3D voxel based modeling library developed by Shapeways.

About the Speaker: Vladimir Bulatov, PhD.
Prior of joining Shapeways in 2012 as 3D graphics research scientist Vladimir has been doing academic research in theoretical physics at St. Petersburg University and Imperial College and developing software for non visual access to scientific information at ViewPlus Technologies. He also runs his own business of making mathematically inspired sculptures and jewelry.

Jun 21, 2013

PrintrBot on Maker Faire 2013. Interesting interview with Brook Drumm on their kickstarter success and technology behind small low cost printer like using kevlar fishing line which does not stretch instead belts. It does not have heat bed, so you can print PLA only.

Very innovative RepRap design similar to delta but much more advanced. It is low cost and highly interesting machine made by Nicholas Seward (high school teacher). I think that future is bright for this printer.

Very comprehensive introduction to 3d printing by Siemens. Looks like all major companies are getting into additive manufacturing even in DIY field. And yes, it is official, Stratasys and Makerbot merged.

The UConduit 3D printer is an h-bot 3D printer, with a frame built from electrical conduit (steel conduit that you can find at the hardware store). It was designed by SSD member Lee Miller and is open source hardware via the Creative Commons Share-Alike license. It is hosted on github at https://github.com/iquizzle/uconduit. All printed parts are designed using OpenSCAD (which is an open source CAD environment) so that parts can be freely compiled and modified.

Why electrical conduit?

There are many options for framing. Most higher-end 3D printers these days are using aluminum t-slotted extrusion or specialty laser cut parts. While I think these options are achieving excellent results, I wanted to build a printer that also had a solid frame, but went back to the hardware store mentality of the earlier Mendel and Prusa printers. Conduit is extremely inexpensive ($3.50/5ft) and plenty stiff for a printer. It created some extra challenges in design work, but has an additional payoff.

The printer is held together using o-rings and compression flanges. Each end has two rubber o-rings. There is a “hard clamp” and a “soft clamp”. The hard clamped o-ring creates a pivot point and firmly holds the conduit in place. By adding a second “soft clamped” o-ring on each end, vibrations are very effectively damped. As a result, the printer is not only fast, but also super quiet! As a physicist, I’ve used this type of connection to create vacuum-tight seals on tube furnaces, which is where I first got the idea. Additionally, wiring can be neatly routed from the top to the bottom of the printer (using the conduit for its intended purpose!).

What is an h-bot?

Think etch-a-sketch! I’ve never deconstructed an etch-a-sketch, but I’d guess that it probably works in a similar way. Two motors are connected to a single belt, which is wrapped in an H shape. If you turn one motor and hold the other fixed, the print head moves at 45-degrees. Combinations of the two motors turning the same way or in opposite directions gives movements in the x and y directions. An advantage to this geometry is that all of the motors in the UConduit remain fixed. Because motors are the heaviest objects in a printer, the inertial forces are significantly reduced by keeping them stationary. I worked with SSD member Free Beachler to modify the popular open source 3D printer firmware “marlin” in order to accommodate the h-bot geometry. I’m very pleased with the results so far, but 3D printing is very competitive in the maker world right now, so you be the judge!

features:
• Outstanding is the opacity, near to plexi-glass.
• Bendlay is very nice to print between 215° to 240°C,
• 240°C is dedicated for best layer adhesion at fast printing speeds
• thermal stability similar to PLA (65 - 70°C)
• Bendlay is an modified Butadien and not made by nature, but may be used for household and food products
• the water absorption is only 30% of the ABS
• while bending, the clear color will not change into white (white fracture) as ABS or PLA do
• good adhesion to ABS and PLA
• soluble in break cleaner, acetone will make Bendlay crumbly

Very noisy but very interesting and useful project of vacuum powered 60000 RPM Dremel turbine tool. And it sucks its own dust too. Author notes that it should be made from metal since plastics degrade due heat if used over certain level.

Shapeways company presentation in Eindhoven (Netherlands) and interview with Shapeway's Community Manager, Bart Veldhuizen. They also show one model made of Alumite material (mixture of nylon and aluminum powder). Some great points are made, very very informative video.

Jun 11, 2013

This is a (nearly entirely) 3D-printed, entirely mechanical computer. The machine has three single-digit, base-10 registers for memory, and is running a 4-instruction program that computes the fibonacci sequence. In the video, it starts out with the registers reading '1, 1, 0', and computes the fibonacci sequence up to '8' before overflowing. For higher resolution photos and a write-up, see: http://www.chrisfenton.com/the-turbo-entabulator/

the Brooklyn-based 3D printing company, is in talks with Minneapolis/Israel-based Stratasys regarding a possible acquisition by the latter, according to a source close to the matter. While Makerbot founder and CEO Bre Pettis refused to comment on speculation, and in fact told reporters “We’re not going anywhere” at a factory opening on Friday, persistent rumors of a sale or new funding have followed the company this year.Stratasys makes high-end, professional-grade 3D printers for industrial applications. For example, the Liberator 3D-printed pistol was built on a Stratasys machine. Stratasys does not yet have an entry-level model for average users, a niche in which Makerbot has generated $50 million in revenue this year.

First video I saw of Form 1 printing in the wild. Thank you Robert Vignone.

Form 1 3D Printer: The First of many. from Robert Vignone on Vimeo.
This is a time-lapse video I made to document the process of printing out my Benedict Cumberbatch model. I will have a follow up video showing the final cast in (hopefully bronze!) or at the very least matte grey which will show off the details much much better. The print took about 12 hours from start to finish in the printer.

I sculpted the model in Mudbox, Prepped the model for 3d print in ZBrush and Meshlab and printed through the PreForm software. It was a good learning experience, overall a big success considering it is the first 3D print I have ever done myself.

Thanks for watching, feel free to follow me here, on Twitter, or check out my site for more updates (lots of good stuff coming real soon)